Akarukei Village in Kobuin Sub-county, Ngora District with approximately 1,000 residents has failed to raise Shs300,000 required to fix a borehole, which broke down two weeks ago.
Ms Margaret Apio, a resident, told this paper on Saturday that their water facility broke down two weeks ago, but the user committee has since failed to collect Shs300,000 from the community. She said for the last 14 days that the committee has been moving around, they have only managed to only collect Shs85,000, leaving a deficit of Shs215,000. Ms Apio added that the community seems to be financially constrained because of the current crop failure.
There are also reports of mismanagement of the borehole funds collected.
‘We have to walk to the neighbouring village of Tiling in Tiling Parish to collect clean water for drinking. We also collect water from the well that we dug at the swamp for domestic use,’ she explained.
Mr Alfred Ekocu Achoka, the Akarukei LC1 chairperson, said there is need to purchase pipes to have the water facility repaired. He said each household is expected to contribute at least Shs2,000 monthly to cater for emergency costs of repairing the water facility. He adds that the borehole user committee must have been failed by water consumers.
‘Originally, the water user committee would confiscate at least one chicken from each household in the event that the residents failed to cooperate. But that was stopped after some village members threatened to sue the borehole user committee in courts of law for trespass,’ Mr Ekocu said. He added that once government constructs a borehole and hands it over to the community, the community benefiting from it, takes over its management and maintenance.
Mr Duncan Musane, the Kobuin LC3 chairperson , said the sub-county does not have a budget that is allocated towards the repair and maintenance of boreholes but insisted that it’s the role of the community. Mr Musane urged the locals to have a sense of ownership of water facilities and other resources or projects that benefit the community.
‘I am going to convene a meeting with that community and discuss with them the modalities of raising the money needed,’ Mr Musane explained.